My brother in law is the guy on the other side of me, in case you didn't notice the family resemblance. Brandon had already put his lightsaber in the car.
Before we left, we walked the girls next door to Papa's house for candy.
Paging Dr. Emma
There is just something so cute about this....father and daughter. haha
Posing with a couple of friends before the chaos begins! We had so much fun and I am SO tired! I can't believe my kids were still up at 7am!!
My family recipe: Spritz Cookies
I used Wilton's orange coloring.
Just use a toothpick and put a dollop in the mixer, mix until you get your desired shade.
This is my Pampered Chef cookie press. Actually I think it's my mom's that she brought out in her suitcase one Christmas and she forgot to take home. =)
Here it is fitted with the pumpkin disk.
Here is the set and all of the other disk shapes. This is the best cookie press I've ever used, in all my 28 years! If you've made this type of cookie before, you know that sometimes they can be tempermental.
Top with sprinkles! I must say...as I was pressing these, I couldn't help but think that I was making cookies out of sweet potato baby food, that's exactly what it looked like.
Bake for 8-11 minutes, depending on your oven. The bottoms should be slightly brown. Cool completely before eating. =)
Start out by lining your cookie sheet with wax paper. Break up pretzels and oreos and spread out on the tray. Add candy corn and fall colored m & m's.
Melt your candy disks, only microwave 30 seconds at a time or they will seize up into a chunky mess. Stir every 30 seconds until they are fully melted.
Spread the melted disks out on the tray and make sure all of the pieces are covered. Use a spatula to help. Top with a few extra candy corn and Halloween sprinkles. Wait for it to dry. Some people put it in the fridge to speed it up, but since I was going to package it, I was worried about it "sweating" if it was cold.
After it's dry, break it up into chunks.
I had enough to make all of these sample bags, a mason jar, and still have that much left over!
I made these cut tags on my cricut.
I used 3 bags of melting disks, and this is my leftover amount after filling my bags. It's super yummy!
I freehanded the shapes on a board that I already had and Trish had a leftover piece of beadboard so we shared. Don't you just love having fellow crafters as friends? This afternoon I broke out the jigsaw and started cutting the pieces. My hubby stepped in and offered to help after the first piece...maybe he was afraid I would cut a finger off or something. =)
After cutting the thicker wood shapes, I laid them on the back of the beadboard and traced around them. Then cut the beadboard. I painted what would be the back side of the thick board with a few coats of white paint.
I used hot glue smeared over the back of the beadboard to attach and then hotglued around the entire edge. Then I painted the tip of the candy corn white, the middle orange, and the widest end yellow. I used shades that I already had because I'm an uber cheapskate. It's kind of a dark orange and a mustard yellow, but it looks great! I didn't attempt to bother taping it because of the crevices, so I just free-handed it. As I painted each color, I wrapped it around the edges too, but I left the back side white because I knew they wouldn't be seen.
Then I added some raffia tied around a couple of them and arranged my shelf!
I love them!
I bought a candy corn shaped cookie cutter but was less than impressed with the way they turned out after they baked.
They looked much better when frosted though. This frosting is so easy to use. Just snip the tiny corner off of the bags and the white still in the Wilton bottle has a writer tip. I did find out that if you frost them when you remove the hot frosting from the microwave, it will run and drip.
It's better to let it slightly cool and you can always reheat it as many times as you need to.
See all of that mess!
Here is my board.
I typed up my words in different fonts and cut around them so that I could lay them out where I wanted them.
After deciding where I wanted them, I picked them up one by one and rubbed chalk on the back of them. Then I put the paper back and traced the outline with a pencil.
If you squint you can see the chalk. Then I painted it freehand. Yikes. It was time consuming. My hand isn't the steadiest, so I outlined the orange paint with a brown sharpie to straighten up the lines. It made it look SO much neater! I used a staple gun to attach brown polka dot ribbon and also added a pumpkin man out of my orange vinyl and my "stretch your imagination" cartridge.
A close up of my not so-handy work.
I think it turned out pretty cute! In case you are not a craft blog addict like me, don't think this was my idea, subway art is ALL OVER blogland! This is just my version. =)
Step 1: Draw and cut out a template from cardstock.
I may add another layer and put them closer together, but I love that I was able to do it with stuff I already have!
She used fishing line but since I didn't have any, I decided on thin metal. I know how hard it can be to make berlap do what you want from when I made my fabric flowers.
After weaving it through (and don't go to close to the edge because the berlap will fray a bit and then you might lose your stitch), I pulled it tight by pulling each end with pliers.
After I had it tight enough, I twisted them around so that it won't unravel and then tucked them inside after trimming the ends.
Snap a branch from your backyard.
Break into a few pieces.
I twisted a piece of wire around the bottom to keep them tight together, to form a big stem.
Not bad for a 15 minute start-to-finish craft.
